Kenya hostages evacuated, mall siege nears end: govt spokesman

The three-day-long siege has left at least 62 dead and up to 200 wounded.

NAIROBI: All hostages are believed to have been evacuated from a Nairobi shopping mall and Kenyan special forces are not encountering any resistance, a government spokesman told AFP late Monday.

He said the three-day-long siege by gunmen, which has left at least 62 dead and up to 200 wounded, was nearing the end.

"Our special forces are inside the building checking the rooms. Obviously it's a very, very big building," said government spokesman Manoah Esipisu.

"We think that everyone, the hostages, have been evacuated, but we don't want to take any chances," he said. "The special forces are doing their job and yes, I think we are near the end."

"The special forces call this sanitising. It's a very complex and very delicate operation," he said, but said no resistance was being encountered.

"At the moment they have not met any resistance, but of course we are not ruling out the possibility that there are a couple of them hiding in a remote room or corner," he told AFP.